Svoboda ili smart

For the first time, the slogan appeared in Georgi Rakovski's poem "Горски пътник", written in 1854 and issued in 1857. The plot of this poem concerns a Bulgarian who recruits a rebel cheta to mutiny against the Turks. He most likely accepted and transliterated the slogan Eleftheria i thanatos from the Greek liberation struggles, which was a national motto of Greece. Rakovski summoned his fellow countrymen to go to the battle fields under the banners of the Bulgarian lion. The flag with the lion was provided in 1858, when he stipulated that the national flag will have on its front side a lion depicted and the inscription "Svoboda ili smart" and on its reverse side a Christian cross and the inscription "God with us, forward!".[5] It was used for the first time during the 1860s from the Bulgarian Legions in Serbia. Then Georgi Rakovski ordered a flag and a seal with the inscriptions "Свобода или смърть".[6] Bulgarian committees used the same slogan on their flags during the April uprising of 1876. Ivan Vazov wrote the poem "Свобода или смърть" in the same year. During the Kresna–Razlog uprising in 1878 there was a banner with such inscription, prepared by the Unity Committee.[7] During the Bulgarian unification of 1885, flags with this inscriptions were also waived by members of the Bulgarian Secret Central Revolutionary Committee.[8] The pro-Bulgarian Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, established in 1893 in the Ottoman Empire, also accepted the same slogan.[9][10] The motto was also used by the Sofia based Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committee between 1894 and 1904. During the Balkan Wars the volunteers from the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps in Bulgarian army, had several flags with this motto. In interwar Greece and Yugoslavia the motto was used by the pro-Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation and Internal Thracian Revolutionary Organisation. In interwar Romania, it was used by the pro-Bulgarian Internal Dobrujan Revolutionary Organisation in Southern Dobruja. During the Second World War this motto was utilized from the pro-Bulgarian Ohrana active in Northern Greece. The uniforms of the Ohranists were supplied by the Italians and were resplendent with shoulder patches bearing the inscription "Italo-Bulgarian Committee: Freedom or Death".[11] It was also utilized as title of several newspapers of these organizations.

Banner presenting the motto written in post-1944 Macedonian language as the original slogan of the defunct in 1934 IMRO.

After 1944 in Communist Yugoslavia a distinct Macedonian language was codified and separate Macedonian nation was recognized.[12] Macedonian became a “first” official language in the newly proclaimed SR Macedonia, where Serbo-Croatian was declared as “second” language, while Bulgarian was prohibited.[13] The Bulgarian spelling "Свобода или смърть" utilized by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization,[14] was transformed into Macedonian as "Слобода или смрт", and became identical to the motto of the Serbian Chetniks.[15] All documents written by Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionaries in standard Bulgarian were translated into Macedonian, and presented as originals.[16][17] Thus, generations of students were taught in pseudo-history.[18] This story has continued in present-day North Macedonia where the motto "Свобода или смърть" is described as written originally in Macedonian. That caused protests from Bulgarian side.[19][20] Curiosily, today as part of the controversial nation-building project Skopje 2014,[21] street lamps are mounted in the center of the city, on which the Bulgarian inscription "Свобода или смърть" is readable.[22]

• Give me liberty or give me death